Tom Merritt's Blog, page 1202

Tech History Today – Mar. 25

In 1925 – John Logie Baird gave his first public demonstration of his 'Sillohette Television' at the Selfridges department store, Oxford Street, London. It was part of the stores birthday celebration.

In 1979 – The first fully functional space shuttle orbiter, Columbia, was delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center in preparation for its first launch.

In 1995 – Ward Cunningham installed the First Wiki, WikiWikiWeb on a $300 computer someone gave him. He connected it to the Internet, using a 14.4-baud dial-up modem.

Tech News Today 464: Soap Versus Perfume

Hosts: Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane and Jason Howell

Facebook vs. employers, apps vs. web apps, real planes vs. fake planes, and more.

Guests: Darren Kitchen

Download or subscribe to this show at twit.tv/tnt.

Submit and vote on story coverage at technewstoday.reddit.com.

We invite you to read, add to, and amend our show notes at wiki.twit.tv.

Thanks to Cachefly for the bandwidth for this show.

Running time: 44:42

Tech History Today – Mar. 24

In 1802 – Richard Trevithick and Andrew Viviane of Camborne Parish in the County of Cornwall, enrolled a patent for a steam engine that could power a full-sized road locomotive. He had previously demonstrated it by driving up a hill in a car he called the "Puffing Devil".

In 1896 – A. S. Popov suppopsedly made the first radio transmission in human history. Popov is said to have transmitted the words "Heinrich Hertz" from one building to another on the campus of St. Petersburg University, though the assertion was not published until years later because of the need for military secrecy.

In 2001 – Apple released its new operating system Mac OS X, code named Cheeta, with a retail price of $130.

Tech News Today 463: Allow The Idiot Element In

Hosts: Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Iyaz Akhtar and Jason Howell

NVIDIA Kepler graphics cards rock pretty hard, hacktivists more of a threat than cybercriminals? Why you should care about the new Photoshop, and more.

Guests: Nate Lanxon and Loyd Case

Download or subscribe to this show at twit.tv/tnt.

Submit and vote on story coverage at technewstoday.reddit.com.

We invite you to read, add to, and amend our show notes at wiki.twit.tv.

Thanks to Cachefly for the bandwidth for this show.

Running time: 47:07

Tech News Today 462: Big Flap Over Flying Human

Hosts: Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Iyaz Akhtar and Jason Howell

Is Bioware caving on the ME3 ending? Can man fly by flapping wings? The Great Spectrum Crunch is coming, and more.

Guests: Ryan Shrout and Brian Brushwood

Download or subscribe to this show at twit.tv/tnt.

Submit and vote on story coverage at technewstoday.reddit.com.

We invite you to read, add to, and amend our show notes at wiki.twit.tv.

Thanks to Cachefly for the bandwidth for this show.

Running time: 46:48

Tech History Today – Mar. 23

In 1857 – The first department store elevator for passengers was installed at E.V. Haughwout & Co. in New York City. This was a significant development towards the building of skyscrapers.

In 1996 – The U.S. space shuttle Atlantis docked with the Russian space station Mir for the third time, and for the first time dropped off a U.S. astronaut. Shannon Lucid began her record-breaking stay on the space station.

In 2001 – The final commands to light the engines of the Progress supply ship were sent to the Russian Mir space station, which then broke up in the atmosphere before falling into the southern Pacific Ocean near Fiji.

East Meets West 281 – Why do we move?

We talk about the state of California, why we move places, and the state of journalism. Also we talk about Space 2099.

Get the episode at this link: http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/www.archive.org/download/EastMeetsWest281-WhyDoWeMove/EastMeetsWest281.mp3

Tech History Today – Mar. 22

In 1895 – The Lumiere brothers showed their first film to an audience. It was a romantic comedy about a crowd of mostly women leaving a building.

In 1960 – Arthur Schawlow and Charles Hard Townes were granted the first patent for a laser (U.S. No. 2,929,922) under the title "Masers and Maser Communications System."

In 1981 – RCA first SelectaVision VideoDisc the SFT100W went on sale. The machine used Capacitance Electronic Discs to fit a couple hours of video programming on a 12-inch vinyl disc that sold for around $15.

In 1993 – The Intel Corporation shipped the first Pentium chips featuring 60 and 66 MHz CPUs.

Triangulation 45: Leah Busque

Hosts: Leo Laporte and Tom Merritt

Leah Busque is the founder and chief product officer of TaskRabbit.com, an online marketplace where you can outsource small jobs and Tasks to others in your own community.

Download or subscribe to this show at twit.tv/tri.

We invite you to read, add to, and amend our show notes.

Thanks to Cachefly for the bandwidth for this show.

Running time: 52:43

Tech News Today 461: Put The Money Where The Money Hole Is

Hosts: Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Iyaz Akhtar and Jason Howell

Windows 8 coming this autumn? Can you bake with the iPad? Why you wish you were British, and more.

Guests: Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ

Download or subscribe to this show at twit.tv/tnt.

Submit and vote on story coverage at technewstoday.reddit.com.

We invite you to read, add to, and amend our show notes at wiki.twit.tv.

Thanks to Cachefly for the bandwidth for this show.

Running time: 45:04